


Scrawl

by helloyesIamtrash



Series: Inked at Midnight [16]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Ace! Hianta Shoyou, Ace! Kozume Kenma, Aged-Up Character(s), Fluff, Hinata has the worst handwriting known to man, I swear its true, M/M, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, bless, brotp hinata and kuroo, brotp kenma and tsukki, friendship and happiness all around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 06:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8276585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helloyesIamtrash/pseuds/helloyesIamtrash
Summary: Though no one knows how or why, at midnight on a person’s 16th birthday, they get writing on their wrist, almost like a tattoo. This writing, whatever it says, has something to do with your soulmate. It’s usually something like the first thing they say to you after it appears, or an inside joke you two will have, maybe a phrase they say a lot. Simply a push in the right direction, fate’s little nudge-nudge wink-wink about what future you have in store. This is how Kenma and Hinata became platonic soulmates!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CheetahLeopard2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheetahLeopard2/gifts).



> OK SO I KNOW I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE AGAIN BUT  
> B U T  
> IT'S BECAUSE I WAS WORKING ON A PROJECT FOR AO3.,,,.,,,,,  
> (one that will be multichaptered and is over 40 pages) ;))))))))  
> So have this for now, sorry it took a while!  
> (also this is unbeta'd sorrY)
> 
> @CheetahLeopard2 I know you've been asking for this for a while, so this one's for you :)

Though no one knows how or why, at midnight on a person’s 16th birthday, they get writing on their wrist, almost like a tattoo. This writing, whatever it says, has something to do with your soulmate. It’s usually something like the first thing they say to you after it appears, or an inside joke you two will have, maybe a phrase they say a lot. Simply a push in the right direction, fate’s little nudge-nudge wink-wink about what future you have in store. 

And while that was nice and all, Kenma was extremely skeptical about the whole thing, seeing as he was extremely asexual. Romance? Sure, that sounds nice to him, though he isn’t actively searching it out and doesn’t need the concept to function. Anything further? A hard no. An extremely hard no. 

Kenma never imagined having any tattoos in his future, at all. 

So, of course on Kuroo’s birthday, they got tattoos for each other, blazing an emerald green for the world to see. 

Kenma could deal with this, especially if it was Kuroo - he knew that his best friend would never pressure him into anything even remotely sexual unless the bottle-blonde was absolutely certain. And they both knew that the one thing he would be absolutely certain on was that he didn’t want to have sex. Which was fine with both of them, anyway. Kuroo had urges, obviously, but he also had his romantic soulmate, Tsukishima Kei, who was among the few human beings that Kenma would willingly hang out with and talk to. He was rather blunt and snarky, but he also respected the bottle-blonde’s boundaries and was kind in his own way. Plus, it was fun to have a Kuroo-bashing session once and awhile, all in good spirits. 

(“What’s with his hair?” 

“It’s just like that.” 

“Why?” 

“Magic.” 

“Kenma.” 

“It’s just like that.” 

“You know he chews with his mouth open.” 

“Yeah.” 

“It’s disgusting.” 

“I know.”) 

But then Kenma’s sixteenth birthday rolled around, and another light green tattoo was messily scrawled on his hand that he couldn’t quite read, making it all the more difficult for him. Which was awful, because Kenma hated putting in more effort than absolutely necessary. At least it wasn’t a romantic one, though. He scrunched his nose at the thought. It wasn’t as if it was bad, just… he wasn’t particularly interested? The setter couldn’t really imagine himself in any type of relationship like that. The only thing he could imagine was Kuroo, and that was very clearly platonic. That suited him well. That suited them well. 

Kenma was comfortable around his friend. They had grown up together. Kenma had seen Kuroo in diapers, in braces, in absolutely nothing (a mistake on both their parts, and something that they agreed to never speak of again). Kuroo had seen Kenma when he was at his worst, trembling in silence on the floor of an empty hall. Panicked. They were with each other through it all, and for Kenma to have another Kuroo? That didn’t sit well with him. He couldn’t visualize it, because no one can be anything close to his stupid-haired, golden-eyed, ridiculously perfect best friend. Of course he would never say that out loud, Kuroo’s ego would inflate tenfold. Or even worse, he might cry. Kenma never knew what to do when people cried, he just sat there and it made him feel awful. 

Getting off-topic, back to the whole soulmates-thing. 

“So, do you have another soulmate? I couldn’t tell if Kuroo was joking when he told me.” Tsukishima mentioned offhand one night. Kuroo was off with Bokuto doing god-knows what kind of stupid thing, so Tsukishima and Akaashi were hanging out at Kenma’s apartment in order to keep their collective sanity. Kenma froze up a bit, always tentative about the topic, but nodded slightly, his eyes still glued to his handheld game. He had turned the volume off so the two could talk, and they both knew that the bottle blond could hear them. It was just how the bottle blonde absorbed information. 

“You have another soulmate, Kenma? Is it green?” Akaashi asked quietly, his tone politely curious as his eyebrows delicately rose. The raven-haired boy always had a way of being effortlessly graceful, something that Kenma grew to love and loathe over their years of friendship. It was soothing to simply watch Akaashi move from one side of the room to the other, gliding across with lowered eyelids and a calming aura. It also meant that he could coax things out of Kenma without his realization. It was unsettling. 

“Green.” Kenma murmured quietly, still focused on his game, but more for the distraction from the conversation at this point. 

“Kenma,” Akaashi said pointedly, and out of instinct golden eyes flicked up to meet the gaze of green. The Mom Look then caught Kenma - a beginner’s mistake on his part - and he huffed, pausing his game and setting it down on the table with a soft clack of metal and plastic. “What does it say?” 

“Dunno.” Kenma said honestly, and two pairs of eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 

“What do you mean?” Akaashi asked slowly, and Kenma reluctantly rolled up his sleeves and revealed both of his tattoos. Usually, it’s seen as a bit tacky to physically show them off like they’re some sort of prize to be had, but it’s all about context. He’s known these two for years, anyway. He cringed just the slightest bit as the neon green saw the artificial ‘light’ of day. 

“Wow, you weren’t kidding.” Tsukishima deadpanned as the two friends looked at the chicken scratch permanently inked onto Kenma’s skin. 

“Tact.” Akaashi murmured out of pure habit, not actually meaning his words. Tsukishima shrugged dismissively, as did Kenma. 

“Kuroo reacted worse.” Kenma stated, and Tsukishima frowned. 

“He didn’t get jealous or anything, right?” He asked, his voice dangerously low, but concern was what bled through his eyes. Kenma snorted delicately at the thought and, on a split-second decision, took a large chuck of the front part of his hair, shifted it over one eye, and lowered his voice into one mimicking his friend’s own while retaining his own monotone. 

“What the fuck is this, ancient hieroglyphics?” Kenma mimicked, and Tsukishima let out a genuine laugh while Akaashi just chuckled softly. 

“That sounds about right.” Tsukishima smirked, but Akaashi remained focused on the issue at hand. 

“And you’re okay with this? You might not find your soulmate because of… this.” Akaashi gestured vaguely at the scrawl, and Kenma let his hair fall back into place while he thought about this. It wasn’t like it was the worst thing in the world, he already had Kuroo, and right now that was all he needed. That didn’t stop him from being curious, though. 

“I don’t mind. I don’t actively seek my soulmate out, but finding them would be nice, I guess.” Kenma finally muttered, his fingers twitching nervously. Too much contact, too much interaction. Jittery, itching to turn his game back on and sink into semi-comfort. Akaashi looked like he wanted to say more, but Tsukishima coughed lightly, a signal, and the raven-haired setter reluctantly let the subject drop. The two continued on in their previous conversations, Kenma interjecting a scattered few times, before they took their leave. Akaashi had already driven home, but Tsukishima lingered a bit longer in the doorstep. 

“Still coming over tomorrow?” The blond asked. 

“Yeah.” Kenma replied quietly, shuffling his feet.

“If you ever want to… talk… about it, you can. Call me.” Tsukishima said stiffly, his golden eyes avoiding Kenma’s own, and the bottle-blonde felt a strong surge of affection and appreciation - it wasn’t often that Tsukishima verbally reached out. It was mostly through small physical or unspoken gestures. 

“Thanks.” Kenma said softly, the corners of his lips tugging slightly upwards. The tall blonde nodded, swiftly vacating the residence. After a bit of thought, Tsukishima brought out his phone and pressed the ‘call’ button. 

“Did you misdial, Tsukishima? You never call me, like, EVER, and-” 

“I need your help.” 

\------------------------------------------ 

“You what?” Hinata squeaked, thoroughly confused. Despite their differences in their first year of high school, the two became begrudging friends, mostly due to their dual closeness with Yamaguchi. They still texted fairly often, even hung out a few times since they live close, but Tsukishima never called. Come to think of it, the blonde never asked for Hinata’s help in anything, either. 

“Don’t make me repeat myself.” Tsukishima sighed over the phone, and Hinata could visualize the blonde wrinkling his nose in distaste. Hinata’s eyes narrowed as he paced his apartment’s kitchen, processing the information. 

“You’re not with the Yakuza, right?” Hinata asked suspiciously, because why else would he ever turn to Hinata, of all people, for help? The only option the orange-haired boy could think of was blackmail. Maybe Tsukishima had gotten into the wrong crowd in university. Maybe he needed some money. Maybe they took Yamaguchi as ransom! Maybe- 

“What? Why would I- Never mind, I don’t want to know. Come over tomorrow afternoon.” Tsukishima said, effectively ruining Hinata’s train of thought, causing the tiny boy to pout in disappointment. 

“Why?” Hinata whined, still upset over the mystery of Why Tsukishima Was Being Weirder Than Usual. A bit of silence followed, then a defeated sigh. 

“A friend of mine-” 

“You have friends?” Hinata gasped, genuinely shocked, but he cringed as he realized how badly that came out. 

“I have Yamaguchi.” Tsukishima muttered quietly. 

“Well, other than Yamaguchi and Tobio and Yachi and I. Really, other than the old volleyball team. Kuroo doesn’t count either, I think.” Hinata added as an afterthought, elaborating on his previous statement. Tsukishima apparently acknowledged the unspoken apology, because he continued to talk. 

“Anyways, his soulmate tattoo, if you can even call it that, could be mistaken for a child’s drawing or an abstract painting. Since your handwriting is equally atrocious, I want you to see if you can translate it.” 

“Hey!” Hinata squawked indignantly, but they both knew Tsukishima’s words to ring true. Every single teacher he’s ever had made him type up every assignment possibly, for both of their sakes. No one could read it but Hinata himself, so it kind of made sense to ask him for help. 

“Tell me I’m wrong.” Tsukishima deadpanned, and Hinata grumbled a few choice words under his breath. 

“You owe me a meat bun.” Hinata muttered grumpily, and Tsukishima made a little noise of victory. 

“Come over at two tomorrow, shrimpy. Don’t be late.” 

“OI, DON’T CALL ME-” Hinata started angrily, but it was too late. Tsukishima had already hung up. The orange-haired boy groaned and threw his phone on his bed in frustration. Stupid Stingyshima and his stupid big words and his stupid logic. 

\------------------------------------------ 

Kenma tapped on Tsukishima’s door at two o’clock sharp, fidgeting with the sleeves of his jacket as the tall blond opened the door. 

“Hey, come in.” Tsukishima greeted, and Kenma entered with a nod, taking off his shoes before going further into the house. 

“Will Akaashi be coming?” Kenma asked quietly as he sat down on Tsukishima’s couch, the blond taking the spot next to him soon after. 

“No, but another… friend of mine will,” Tsukishima said, wincing at the use of ‘friend’. “He’s always late, so we can start without him.” Kenma decided to not question him, and they booted up their XBox to play some new shooter that they both had interest in. A half an hour later of smirks of victory and little pouts of loss, the doorbell rang three times in a row. The tall blond rolled his eyes and went out of the room to greet whoever was at the door. 

“Late again, I see.” Tsukishima’s voice echoed throughout the house. 

“I was taking a nap and then I woke up and it was past two!” An indignant, bright voice shot back, and the rustling of noise could only be credited to the person taking their shoes off. Not moments after, a blur of orange came sliding on the hardwood floor with socks, managing to arc his body to move into the kitchen. “Aww, why do you never have good food here?” The voice complained, following the sound of a fridge door opening and closing. Kenma scrunched his nose. Loud.

“Because I actually have food that won’t give you diabetes.” Tsukishima huffed at the voice as he sat back down with Kenma, a long suffering look settling on his face. 

“But I’m hungry.” The voice whined, getting louder as the boy finally turned the corner. He was short, maybe even shorter than Kenma himself, but he definitely had more energy - he was bouncing on the balls of his feet even when he was standing still. A shock of orange hair was mussed on his head, having no sense of direction or style, and yet somehow didn’t look terrible. His brown eyes were bright with amusement, sparkling as they landed on Kenma. 

“Ah, right. Hinata Shoyou, Kozume Kenma. Kozume Kenma, Hinata Shoyou.” Tsukishima introduced with a lazy flick of his wrist.

“Your eyes are really pretty!” The orange-haired boy exclaimed almost reverently, his own brown ones wide as he trotted over. 

“Thanks, I guess.” Kenma murmured, always unsure of how to take compliments. And apparently, that wasn’t how to do it, because the ball of energy seemed to have a zap of electricity jolt up his spine. Hinata then turned to the blond, eyes as wide as saucers as he started to frantically gesture with his arms in such a way that neither of the other two seemed to understand. It looked as if he couldn’t find the correct words either, since his mouth was opening and closing like a closed fish. 

“W-Wrist!” Hinata managed after a solid few minutes. 

“Congratulations, you remembered how to speak. Why did you have to remember, I was having such a lovely time.” Tsukishima deadpanned. 

“Fuck you!” Hinata exclaimed at Tsukishima, but his anger dissipated as he returned his gaze to the bottle blond. “Wrist! Can I, uh, see? Yours?” Kenma frowned slightly. He didn’t understand why the boy was acting so strangely in front of him, and he usually didn’t like showing people he didn’t know, but something was tugging in Kenma’s gut. 

“It’s not like you can read it anyways.” Kenma allowed with a shrug, rolling up his sleeves and revealing what might as well have been a newly discovered language. Hinata bounced back to life and scurried over to Kenma’s side - very close, too close for Kenma’s liking - but it was unusual how comfortable it was for him. What was going on with him? 

“It says ‘Your eyes are really pretty.’” Hinata whispered devoutly, and the setter took in a sharp breath. A million thoughts whirled through Kenma’s brain, but one stood out to him. 

“Your handwriting is absolutely awful. How did you pass high school?” Kenma asked, blank-faced as Hinata sputtered and Tsukishima snorted. 

“I typed most of my exams! I didn’t think about how it would affect the tattoo!” Hinata protested, clearly embarrassed. 

“Yours is green too, right?” Kenma asked softly after a moment, and the orange-haired boy’s mouth formed a round little o. 

“Yeah! It’s not, like, a one-sided thingy. We’ll be best friends!” Hinata proclaimed happily, turning over his wrist to reveal a ‘thanks, I guess’ written in an emerald green. Kenma let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

“Well,” Tsukishima started. “I don’t like being the third wheel, even if it you both aren’t a couple. Kenma, let’s beat his ass.” 

“Sure.” 

“Betrayal!” 

Epilogue:

Hinata stood nervously at Kenma’s doorstep, knowing full well that he was early (but he was making up for it by bringing some of his mom’s apple pie). What he did not know, however, was that Kuroo was over. 

He had never met Kuroo in person before, just said hello over the phone a few times whenever Kenma was with one of them and not the other. He sounded like a genuinely nice guy, and he make Tsukishima happy, which was basically doing the impossible (only Yamaguchi has tackled that feat before). That didn’t stop the dark haired, golden eyed tall man who opened Kenma’s door instead of said setter to be any less terrifying to the small decoy. 

“Oh, Hinata! Nice to finally meet you. Come in, he’s taking a little nap.” Kuroo said with a smile, but the orange-haired boy could feel the waves of intimidating radiating off of the bed head. They both sat down at the kitchen counter. 

“Right, let’s get down to business. What do you think of Kenma?” Kuroo asked immediately, his eyes narrowing with suspicion and his hands steepled on the counter. Hinata cocked his head in confusion, because this wasn’t a scary question? 

“Well, he’s super quiet until you get to know him! It’s been a few months now, and he only texts a few word replies, but he’s funny and nice and likes to play video games with me! He’s also really pretty, bu-” Hianta chirped, but then something dangerous flashed in Kuroo’s eyes. 

“You know he’s ace, right?” Kuroo asked, his voice dangerously low. 

“Uh, yes?” Hinata squeaked, his back rigid. 

“If you ever try to pressure him into anything, I will personally dig your own grave.” Kuroo swore, and while Hinata was thoroughly frightened, his confusion didn’t lift. 

“I mean, I wouldn’t ever, but I’m ace? So I don’t see how this is a problem?” Hinata stammered, and Kuroo had the right to look taken aback. 

“Sorry?” Kuroo asked incredulously. 

“Well, yeah! Oh, did you think that I liked him like that because I said he was pretty? Well, I mean, he IS pretty, but like, not in that way. People in general are really pretty,” Hinata said solemnly. “Like, Akaashi? You’ve met Akaashi, right? He’s so pretty.” Hinata exclaimed, completely genuine. Kuroo searched the younger’s face for a moment, before a small, cat-like grin crept onto his face. 

“Akaashi is so pretty, dude. I don’t know how Bokuto landed him, but goddamn.” 

“Right?” Hinata beamed excitedly. 

“Uh, sorry about the whole intimidation-thing.” Kuroo said sheepishly, but Hinata shook his head. 

“No, I would do the same thing, but Tanaka says I always look like an angry puppy and it doesn’t work,” Hinata muttered sullenly, and with the way the boy was pouting, Kuroo couldn’t find himself to disagree. Suddenly, both of their stomachs growled. “Did you have dinner?” 

“No, did you?” Kuroo asked. 

“No.” They simultaneously look over at the apple pie. 

“You know, Kenma won’t be awake for a while.” 

“Yeah.” 

“The forks are in the left side drawer.” 

“I brought whipped cream.” 

A few hours later, Hinata woke up with a similarly-sleepy looking Kuroo beside him, an empty pie tin between them, and a pissed-off Kenma in front of them. 

“Both of you can get out of my house.” 

“But Kenma!” Twin voices whined, and the two went out to get another apple pie. They didn’t mind too much - anything for their Kenma.

**Author's Note:**

> so  
> yeah  
> it happened!!!!!!!!  
> OPTIONS  
> A) Iwaoimatsuhana  
> B) KuroOi  
> C) Akaken  
> D) other???? hmu  
> My tumblr is decadentcandyeagle if you wanna chat/be my friend/other  
> (if fanart exists for this series,,, holy shit please tell me,,,,,)  
> Love you all, hope you enjoyed!


End file.
